"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain menfrom injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." (Thomas Jefferson)

Monday, May 21, 2012

Happy to see Cong McClintock stepping foward as a budget hawk to be a voice against rising deficits and the smoke and mirrors budgets we have been seeing for years.

It says it all right here about the so called deal to cut the budget to raise the debt ceiling:

McClintock said that allowing immediate debt increases to be offset by spending cuts down the road is wrong. The Budget Control Act raised the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion, but imposed that amount of cuts over 10 years.

“What they actually did, the few cuts they made wouldn’t take place until 2017, while the debt increase all happened immediately,” McClintock said.

We have been hearing for sometime that the agreement reached to raise the debt ceiling was smoke and mirrors. If you want further evidence, take a look at this year's Defense Budget coming out of the House that gives the Defense Department more than they asked and more then the President requested. Is this what Defense Contractors are getting for donating to Super PACs who are funding the members of Congress? A missile defense shield for the east coast to protect us from Iran and North Korea? Give me a break.

The House on Friday approved a sweeping defense authorization bill for 2013 that calls for the construction of an East Coast missile defense system in the United States by the end of 2015. The bill obligates $100 million next year to plan for the site, but the project would cost billions of dollars in later years that has yet to be funded.

The language was derided by a House Democrat as an "East Coast Star Wars fantasy base" but nonetheless escaped further scrutiny during floor debate Wednesday and Thursday on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Friday afternoon, members approved the bill in a 299-120 vote after approving dozens of amendments, some after fierce debate that revealed disagreements on issues such as detainee policy, nuclear cooperation with Russia and the speed of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Seventy-seven Democrats support the bill, while 16 Republicans opposed it.

The NDAA authorizes $643 billion in spending for the Department of Defense and overseas contingency operations, $8 billion above the spending caps in last year's Budget Control Act (BCA) and $3.7 billion higher than President Obama's request.

The House authorization level will lead to a showdown with the Senate, which is marking up the authorization bill in committee next week, because the Democratic-led Senate is expected authorize funding roughly at the president's level.

Republicans have been pushing back against $487 billion in cuts the Pentagon is planning to make over the next decade as part of the BCA. The authorization bill from Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) follows the budget of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which restores a chunk of the defense cuts while making more cuts to non-defense discretionary spending.

Believe in a strong military but to say there is no waste and they need budget cuts restored defies reality that the Defense Department cannot take budget cuts. How about all the people hired at Warner Robins AFB when there was a freeze? It is not the only place as the Defense Department continues to grow. You want cuts, then look at the way contracts are awarded to the major contractors. The whole contracting system needs a redo to save taxpayer dollars. The Air Force boondoggles for the F-22 and F-35 should be sending off warning bells that you need to look at contracting and how a major contract is awarded. Then we have the Tanker contract that was delayed for years because a defense department employee ended up in jail for steering the contract to Boeing when Boeing should have won the contract but the people in charge paid off a high level official to make sure. The delay raised the cost of each Tanker tremendously while putting the aging tanker fleet at risk.

I would put Cong Steve King (R-IA) or Cong Tom McClintock in charge of the House Budget Committee, and we would get some real cuts. For years the Federal Government has continued to grow not only the deficit but the number of employees they hire. Then the Congressman who take donations from the major contractors are the ones who approve the budgets like for Defense. Sad state of affairs when it is Republicans spending more than requested by an agency.

Congress' out of control spending continues almost across the board. What happened to all the deficit hawks that were elected in 2010? So many of the Freshman threw in with leadership and lost their belief in limited government if they ever had it. Then you have the Democrat Senate who refuses to pass a real budget for over three years so that agencies can keep the original funding from three years ago as part of continuing resolutions on the budget. Only thing that makes sense on not passing a budget by the Senate.

Congressmen Steve King who was elected in 2002 and Tom McClintock elected in 2008 are a few of the bright lights in Congress who are willing to take on the establishment. We need to send more like them to Congress and less of the spineless elected Congressional members who can be swayed by leadership. Cong King has been speaking on the floor of the House since he arrived about limited government and cutting the deficit with real cuts not the smoke and mirrors we see from the establishment leadership Republicans and Democrats. With Congressman Mike Pence one of the budget hawks running for Indiana Governor who won't be back next year in Congress, it is great to see Cong McClintock step forward to take the mantle of the budget hawks!

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) has emerged as a leader of deficit hardliners in the House and become a thorn in the side of GOP leaders.

While McClintock does not criticize other Republicans by name, he is clearly dissatisfied with the amount of spending cuts House Republicans have achieved since winning the majority in 2010.

“This government doesn’t spend money unless the House authorizes it. We are more than a year into a period where we have controlled the House and we are a trillion dollars deeper in debt,” he told The Hill in an interview. “The buck starts here. We can’t blame the president.”McClintock, who has been in the House since 2008, led the 93-member defection against reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank this month with an impassioned floor speech.

“Legitimate companies have plenty of access to private capital, they don’t need these subsidies. The illegitimate ones don’t need to be propped up with the hard-earned dollars of working taxpayers,” McClintock said on the floor.

The Ex-Im bill was negotiated by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who supports ending export credits but compromised with Democrats to extend the bank for three more years. In one concession won by Cantor, the bill for the first time orders the administration to begin international talks to end export financing.

That wasn’t enough to sway McClintock, however. He argued that, although the bank turns a profit, it could one day blow up in taxpayers’ faces like Fannie Mae.

McClintock was also one of 10 defectors on the Small Business Tax Cut act, H.R. 9, which passed the House in April by a 235-173 vote.

The bill gives a 20 percent tax break to any business with fewer than 500 employees, but following House GOP rules, the tax cut was not offset, meaning it would add to the deficit.McClintock argued that tax cuts must be offset with spending cuts.

"Tax cuts without either spending reductions or real economic growth are an illusion," he said at the time.

McClintock also organized 43 other members into sending a letter to GOP leaders this month demanding that the 12 appropriations bills be moved through the chamber individually.On that front, McClintock is making progress. He told The Hill Friday that leaders responded favorably to the letter, and while they might still resort to packaging the bills together, they are allowing crucial amendments to come up on the floor.

One of the biggest fights over federal spending could come next year, when Congress will need to increase the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned President Obama this week that he would not accept a debt-ceiling increase that isn’t paired with bigger spending cuts.

But McClintock said he remains skeptical that the House will be able to make deep enough cuts in the next showdown.

“[Boehner’s] speech was very good. The question is, does he mean the same kind of agreement that was adopted as the Budget Control Act? The problem is the cut in the English sense of the word doesn’t translate very well into Washington-ese,” he said.

(snip)

House leadership offices did not respond to request for comment on McClintock’s stands. Aides have said in the past that controlling “one half of one third of government” means that the GOP does face constraints in achieving all its policy goals before the election.

McClintock is demur when asked if he is emerging as a budget leader in the House. He gives more credit to Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for his efforts.Before coming to Congress, McClintock was known as a maverick budget hawk in the California state Assembly who wasn’t afraid to take on the party establishment. He ran against Arnold Schwarzenegger to try to replace Gray Davis as governor in the 2003 recall election.

According to Think Progress, “NRA: Practice Range” is billed as a “network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resource” for the organization.The National Rifle Association released a new app on Sunday that includes a gun range equipped with coffin-shaped targets, and the option for players to simulate using a military-grade sniper rifle.

The app includes what it calls “9 true to life firearms,” and allows players to download an MK-11 sniper rifle setting for 99 cents. The rifle can shoot 750 rounds per minute.

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